in each new city through food. "And just like in Paris," she
writes, "whenever I needed

some quiet time alone, I'd head to the grocery
store."

From the recipes at the end of each chapter, one
sees that Weiss often favors rustic

food with peasant origins. Her favorite dish as a child was a potato
vegetable soup—

"Braised Artichokes and Potatoes"--from Italy
that her grandmother used to make. Then there's “Depression Stew,” her father's concoction. Two kinds of pizza--Sicilian and
Neapolitan--are featured, as well as recipes for "Tomato Bread
Soup," "German Pea Soup," "Potato Salad" (which they seem to eat quite often in Germany). Also, "Flammkuchen” or flatbread, "Apple
Tart," "Quark Cheesecake," and "White
Asparagus Salad."

plum cake.
Their surprising friendliness and reverence for neighbors. How Berliners gorge at breakfast time.

German cuisine?
Previously, my knowledge of German cuisine was that I'd eaten

sauerkraut and hot dogs as a kid, I'd heard of wiener schnitzel and have a faint
childhood

memory of biting into liverwurst and not liking
it. So this is foreign territory for
me.

But as I read My
Berlin Kitchen, I found myself thinking of trying out some of the yummy recipes (despite the fact that cooking is not my forté).

Moreover, I had the sense that the foods and recipes
and love story comprised a modern-day

German fairy tale--in which Berlin is a romantic
city, filled with Quark and Flammkuchen.

ToWeiss,
Berlin is "the linden-scented city."

She writes, "When the days start to lengthen
and the trees bloom and the air fills

with the scent of linden blossoms, warming earth,
and budding leaves, it

comes as such a relief, such a much-deserved reward
for having survived another

bone-cold winter, that one could almost believe that
Berlin was an equatorial paradise."

A beautiful portrait of the author's life emerges
alongside the formerly beleaguered Berlin—

"with its overcast winter skies and inescapable
history often gets the short end of the stick

when it comes to capturing the imagination of food
lovers and romantics." To the
skeptics, Weiss answers: Berlin
is romantic and a food lover's delight.

After all, she found two loves:
Sam (who believed true
love was "a fantasy") and Max (whom she met in high school in Berlin, fell in love with in Paris, and wed in Italy).Ultimately, Weiss foundhappiness, fulfillment, friends and
true love in Berlin--by following her self-declaredmotto, "Be brave."

At one point,
chameleon-like Weiss discusses breakfasts as they differ in each
country.

My
Berlin Kitchen is
beautifully written, poetic as well as introspective. As readers,

we become privy to Weiss' feelings and thoughts as
she decides, for example, to leave one

wannabe-fiancé (Sam) because she was unhappy. And, of course, there is the food--

at once sumptuous and exotic and rustic.

In summation,
"When you grow up all mishmashed like I did, with an American passport and Italian citizenship and a birth certificate issued
in West Berlin it might take a little longer than usual to figure out your place in
the world. You're this strange little hybrid of a person, easily adaptable, fluent
in many languages, an outsider everywhere."

My
Berlin Kitchen would go on my list of Best Books of 2012.

---Yolanda A.
Reid

Check out Luisa Weiss' blog at
www.thewednesdaychef.com and her photostream of

the many cities in My Berlin Kitchen at www.flickr.com/photos/74932844@N00/.

About Me

Yolanda A. Reid is the author of The Honeyeater--a contemporary women's novel about love, heartbreak and betrayal that was a finalist for the 2014 Diva Awards. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in literary journals and e-zines such as “Women Writers: An E-zine”; Starlight Poets; Mysteries of the Lyric World; Many Voices, Many Lands and others. Her first novel--Porridge & Cucu: My Childhood--is about a young girl's adolescence. Her debut poetry collection, SONNETS TO THE JAPIM BIRD, is scheduled for release in June 2017. She lives in the USA.